SAN DIEGO – The Buick Invitational is history, but the PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines is expected to live on into next year and beyond.

Buick and the PGA Tour jointly announced Tuesday that because of the bankruptcy reorganization at General Motors, all agreements between the company and the tour were being withdrawn.

Buick had one year left on its contract to sponsor the 2010 Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines and the Buick Open in Grand Blanc, Mich. With Buick's departure, the Century Club of San Diego, which stages the tournament here, will have to secure a new sponsor.

Tom Wornham, president and general chairman of the Century Club, said he is “100 percent confident” a sponsor will be found to take over the 2010 event and stick with the tournament into the next PGA Tour television contract, which will run from 2011 through 2014. It costs a company as much as $10 million per year to sponsor a tournament.

“Not by any means do I want to sound arrogant or cocky about this, but we're feeling very positive with the support we've had from the tour,” said Wornham, vice president and regional manager for Wells Fargo Bank. “We're going to have success finding a new sponsor very quickly.”

Wornham said the Century Club and tour have had discussions with five or six serious sponsor candidates. “All of them are names you would recognize,” he said. “We're going to pull off a great tournament this year (2010) and it will be with a sponsor that everyone will be happy with.”

Wornham said he hoped a deal would be in place by September. The 2010 tournament is scheduled for the last week in January.

It has been speculated that the Century Club and tour might be interested in a sponsorship pact with a large company that is locally or regionally based, such as Qualcomm or Sempra Energy. Another idea, which may be nothing more than a dream, would have Tiger Woods hosting a West Coast tournament at Torrey Pines similar to the AT&T National he holds each Fourth of July weekend outside Washington, D.C.

Wornham wouldn't address specific entities as possible sponsors, but he said: “Right now, there is the possibility of everything. Nothing is off the table. That's one of the exciting things. We have so many options right now. You can look at things as a challenge or an opportunity. We've got a lot of opportunities.”

The PGA Tour has lost several sponsors this year, including Buick for its two events, U.S. Bank in Milwaukee and Stanford Financial in Memphis. Chrysler also is likely out for the Bob Hope. The PGA has extended contracts with Zurich (New Orleans), Accenture (Match Play) and Travelers (Connecticut) through 2014. The only new sponsor to come on board is Korean broadcast giant SBS, which replaced Mercedes-Benz at Kapalua.

At least 10 other tournaments have title sponsorships that expire after 2010.

In the tough economic climate, the San Diego event is in a relatively enviable position. It has a 57-year history with the tour; it draws among the highest television ratings each season; the Torrey Pines South Course hosted the 2008 U.S. Open; and the Century Club has been successful at raising more than $19 million for charity since it began staging the tournament in 1961.

Perhaps above all else, it can boast the consistent presence of Woods, who has won the Buick Invitational a record six times and the U.S. Open once at Torrey Pines. He has never placed lower than 10th here. After 11 consecutive appearances, Woods didn't play in the Buick this year while rehabbing his surgically repaired knee.

“If you're looking at selling a product like ours as a tour stop, and everything that goes with it, it's hard to beat San Diego as a region and hard to beat the Century Club's history of putting on a great tournament,” Wornham said. “All of that is playing very well with every prospective sponsor.”

Buick's involvement with the San Diego tournament began in 1992. It sponsored 18 tournaments, and 15 of those first-place trophies were presented to a player who had won a major. Beyond Woods, who won four Buicks in a row starting in 2005, San Diegan Phil Mickelson won three Buick titles. Nick Watney's victory this year snapped a streak of 13 consecutive events captured by a major champion.

The San Diego tour event has been played every year but one (1958) since 1952. The tournament has been contested at five venues, including Torrey Pines, since 1968.